Aww, did we hurt-um's widdle feelings?

"This brave man came to our country to talk about how he's risking his life for a free Iraq, which helps America," Bush said at a campaign event in battleground Wisconsin. "And Senator Kerry held a press conference and questioned Mr. Allawi's credibility. You can't lead this country if your ally in Iraq feels like you question his credibility."

That, bad, bad Mr. Kerry! Insulting that great man by suggesting that what he said today didn't agree with what he'd said just a few days ago. How dare he?! What gall! I'm sure that nice Mr. Allawi was crushed. Mr. Kerry is SO much scarier that Saddam Hussein, who, we were just told, sent men with axes to get Allawi in London. I'm sure that Kerry's comment chilled Allawi to the core. Certainly, a man with a background of working for MI6 and the CIA to plot failed coup attempts, and whom Newsweek calls 'Iraq's new SOB', probably has a very thin skin.

How can we expect a man who's risked his life to be leader of our installed client state, er, I mean, leader of a free Iraq, to be able to ignore the hideous insult of being asked to explain himself? That kind of rough-and-tumble is certainly not the way they do things in Iraq. I'm sure that no one in Iraq has even hinted that Allawi might not be perfectly truthful, much less compared him to a donkey or insulted his mustache.

Mr. Cheney was so right when he said "I must say I was appalled at the complete lack of respect Senator Kerry showed for this man of courage. Ayad Allawi is our ally." What Kerry did was appalling. Complete disrespect for an ally. I wouldn't blame Mr. Allawi if he immediately broke relations, withdrew his ambassador, and maybe even instituted a trade embargo against us. What was Kerry thinking?!

By the way if you missed Kerry's comment, it was:

"I think the prime minister is obviously contradicting his own statement of a few days ago, where he said the terrorists are pouring into the country," Kerry said. "The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story."

So you can see why the President is mad.

(And what's with that final inanity about not being able to lead the United States of America if somebody in Iraq thinks you don't believe him? It's never stopped anyone before. Shouldn't it be their job to prove themselves to us? Aren't we the superpower here? Isn't having Iraq's leader prove himself to us what the war was supposedly about in the first place? The mind reels. The good point in all this: Bush was responding to Kerry, not the other way round.)